Loud music and simulated crowd noise provided the soundtrack to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s second intrasquad scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday.
Coach Alonzo Hampton said the players need to understand the environment they will be entering when they face No. 23 Texas Tech in the season opener on Aug. 30.
“It ain’t gonna be friendly when you get down there,” Hampton said. “You ain’t gonna be able to hear yourself talk. Like, we gotta be able to look at the guy to our right and to our left and be able to communicate with them. So, that’s what we’re trying to get our guys to understand. Here, we can turn that music on our favorite song all we want. It ain’t the same when you get out there and they throwing tacos and burritos at you, because they’re fired up.”
Texas Tech has a longstanding tradition of throwing tortillas on the field during Tech kickoffs. A recent rule change in the Big 12 Conference against fans throwing objects on the field is threatening that tradition, but UAPB can still expect a hail of tortillas for at least the game’s opening kickoff.
Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, features a listed capacity of 60,454. The Red Raiders welcomed a crowd of 60,229 for their home opener last season against an FCS foe, Abilene Christian.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Assuming Tech pulls a similar number in two weeks, it will be the largest crowd UAPB has played in front of in the Hampton era, well beyond the 40,127 fans UAPB saw for last year’s opener against Arkansas at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Offensive coordinator Tony Hull said his players were “so-so” in handling the noise during the scrimmage, which is what he expected.
“We’ve never really played in front of a crowd that we’re about to go up against,” Hull said. “We talk about the Arkansas game last year. It’s still not as big and rambunctious as what we’re about to go into (on Aug. 30), and that’s no disrespect to University of Arkansas fans. We’re going into an environment where people spent $60 million on a roster, and they gotta prove that it’s worth spending.”
Last week, the offense topped the defense in UAPB’s first scrimmage, which didn’t feature simulated crowd noise. The sound got to the offense on Saturday.
The Golden Lions brought in a full officiating crew for the scrimmage and kept them busy with several pre-snap penalties. Hampton said he counted at least eight false starts.
“Those guys gotta lock into the moment from the sideline to the field,” Hampton said. “We had a couple of penalties just from coming out, first play of the drive. That’s unacceptable. You can’t do that. We had a couple of back-to-back penalties. That’s even worse. So, those are things we gotta get cleaned up.”
The other big difference between this scrimmage and the first was the turnovers. The offense didn’t turn the ball over last week but did so four times on Saturday. Freshman cornerback Zay Stribling, a Mills University Studies product, collected two.
His first was an interception where he undercut junior quarterback DJ Stevenson’s intended receiver and ran it back for a touchdown. He later recovered a fumble.
The offense fumbled one other time before settling down with six straight possessions without a turnover. Sophomore cornerback Michael Henderson, a recent junior college signee, ended the streak when he caught a tipped pass for the day’s final turnover.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Burrow said any good defense needs to force turnovers.
“Anytime you can make them put the ball on the ground, you’re doing something right,” Burrow said. “You kill momentum by taking the ball away, winning on fourth down, getting stops. Those are momentum killers, so I think we did a good job for the most part of keeping the momentum today.”
Of note, the coaches held a few key players out of the scrimmage, primarily on offense. Wide receivers Kareem Burke and Josh Richards and running back Za’Marion Webber were notable absences as the coaches have seen what they needed from those players.
That may have held the offense back at times, but it allowed others to stand out. Freshman quarterback Garrison Davis threw a touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Ellis Stewart in the red zone, and junior running back Jaylen Jennings scored a 3-yard touchdown run on the scrimmage’s final play.
The biggest offensive play of the day was a 98-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tysan Robbins to wide receiver Jordan Jackson after Jackson got open behind the defense.
Hull said he was excited for Jackson, a Pine Bluff native who transferred from Arkansas Tech, to make that type of play.
“This area has a lot of talent,” Hull said. “But the hard thing, the disheartening thing is to watch a lot of this talent go other places. So, to see a guy from this area have success while doing it around his family, his community, it’s great to see it. I’m expecting a lot of big things from Jordan Jackson.”